Update...FIXED it.
I gave up in the end and went in to set an address up manually. At this point I discovered that although the language was set to ENGLISH, the Map was set to FRANCE....even though it was showing me navigating around the UK!!!!.
Anyway , tap the top right of the display...set UNITED KINGDOM...and hey presto now I can search via voice command.
Isn't tech brill )
Thanks again Andre